


FFVII Folk Tales: The witch wife

by ixieko



Series: FFVII Folk Tales [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 09:43:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5622886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ixieko/pseuds/ixieko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A hunter saves a mystery woman and brings her back into his village. Who she is and why are villagers so against her?</p>
            </blockquote>





	FFVII Folk Tales: The witch wife

Long, long time ago, when Churindari (local name for the Nothern Continent, translates as “Green fields” - M.) was as green as its name, a village stood on the shore, a very big, very wealthy village. They had many reindeer and had bread and meat and fish for every meal, and ate from golden plates, and even kids in that village wore nice clothes and soft fur boots.  
The chieftain had three sons, the first big and strong as a white bear, the second quick and nimble as a fox, and the third wise as an owl. When the chieftain was dying, he asked his sons to live peacefully and rule the village together, and so they did. The second brother had two wives and six children, the third brother had three wives and twelve children, and only the oldest brother was single, for he was picky and did not want to take an ordinary woman as a wife.

Once, the second brother was going to a hunt. He took his bow and arrows, sat on his black reindeer and turned to the mountains.  
"Stop, middle brother," The wise brother said, "We do not go in these mountains. The ycher-asi (witch - M.) lives there, she will eat your heart and salt your meat for winter."  
The brother did not listen to the wise advice. He said, “I am quick and nimble, the ycher-asi will not catch me. And if I will see her, I will shoot her in the eye and eat her heart, and will become the wizard myself.”  
A week had passed, a moon had passed, all the spring had passed, but the middle brother did not return. His wives cried, his children cried, even his yurt leaned to the side without him.  
"I will go and find him," The oldest brother said.  
"Stop, oldest brother," The wise brother said, "We do not go in these mountains. The ycher-asi lives there, she already ate our brother’s heart and will eat yours too and salt your meat for winter."  
The brother did not listen. “I am strong as a white bear,” He said, “The ycher-asi will not defeat me. And if I will see her, I will smash her on the head with my mace and eat her heart, and will become the wizard myself.”  
He took his great mace, sat on his reindeer and went to the mountains.  
For long, long time he rode through forest and tundra, crossed creek and river, but the second brother was nowhere to be seen. He stopped for the night and lit fire, and slept. While he slept, two wolves came and looked at him.  
"Let’s eat him," The young wolf said.  
"He is big and strong as a white bear," The old, grey wolf said. "Let’s go away."  
The reindeer heard them and called, “Master, master! Two wolves want to eat us!”  
The brother leapt up from his saktavoon (sleeping mat - M.) and took his mace and smashed the young wolf into the ground and raised the mace again, but the old wolf pleaded:  
"Don’t kill me, strong man, be kind to my wife and children! I will be of use to you!"  
The oldest brother spared him, and asked, “You run far and wide, wolf. Did you see my brother? He is quick and nimble as a fox, and his reindeer is black.”  
"I saw him," The wolf said. "He went into the northern mountains, but never returned."  
The oldest brother sat on his reindeer, turned to the mountains. “Thank you, wolf,” He said. “I will go find my brother.”  
"If you will need me, howl like a wolf, and I will come to help." The beast said, and ran away to his lair.  
The brother rode through tundra and rocky wasteland, up to the mountains, and stopped where the path divided in two. He looked at the left, and looked at the right, and could not decide where to go. He looked at the sky, and saw an eagle, and asked him, “Eagle, you are flying high in the sky and see all that happens on the land. Did you see my brother? He is quick and nimble as a fox, and his reindeer is black.”  
The eagle answered, “I saw him. He went into the mountains on the right, but never went out.”  
"Thank you, eagle," The brother answered, and went to the right fork.  
For long, long time he rode through the mountains, but did not meet anyone. At last, he came to a small cave. Inside, it was like a house, with fireplace and a bed. On the bed, a woman was lying, as in sleep. The brother called out to her, but she did not wake up. He came closer and saw that she was wounded and bandaged, and her face was red with fever.  
The brother took pity on her and stayed to help. He boiled medicine herbs and washed her wound, and gave her water to drink.  
When she woke up, he looked at her and saw that she was different from the women in his village. Her skin was pale, and her eyes were big and blue. He thought that she was beautiful, and fell in love with her.  
"Who wounded you?" He asked.  
"A man," She answered, "He was quick and nimble as a fox, and his reindeer was black."  
He understood then, that it was his middle brother, but he did not know why would he attack this woman.  
"You are beautiful," He said. "I want to take you as my wife. My village is big and wealthy, and I’m one of the chieftains."

He took her to the village, and when they returned, the middle brother was already there. He spent so much time in the mountains looking for the ycher-asi which he wounded, but never found her, not even a trail. When he saw her sitting on his brother’s reindeer like a wife, he got angry and screamed, “Why did you take this ycher-asi as a wife!”  
The wise brother said, “Kill her, brother, before she killed us all and ate our hearts.”  
But the oldest brother did not agree. He took the ycher-asi in his yurt and called her his wife.  
Summer passed, the ycher-asi was sitting inside the yurt, never coming out. The oldest brother did everything by himself, milked reindeer, scrubbed furs, and two others laughed at him. “Why do you keep this lazy wife,” They said, “Why don’t you kick her out.”  
Long or short time passed, but people got used to the ycher-asi, and she began to come out of the yurt, and they saw that she was beautiful and kind. All the people were charmed by her spells, and only the two brothers remembered who she was and did not trust her.  
Once, a saman (shaman, a good wizard - M.) came to the village. Everyone greeted him and invited him to bless them, their children and pregnant women. The oldest brother called the saman to his yurt too, for his only wife was pregnant. But when the saman entered his yurt, the ycher-asi saw him and shouted to him to go away, called him a son of rat and, when he turned away, spat on his heels.  
The saman was offended and did not even stay night in the village.  
"Cast her out," The people said to the oldest brother. "She is the ycher-asi, she does not have any respect for us."  
"If you will cast me out," The ycher-asi threatened, "Everyone who was blessed by the saman will go crazy and die."  
Then, the middle brother took his strong bow and aimed on her and said, “We are not afraid of your threats. Go away.”  
The ycher-asi went away, and returned to her cave in the mountains. She was angry with the village people, and so she took milkweed, and henbane, and red amanita, and made a concoction, and read a spell over it, and poured it into the river from which the people took water, and everyone who was blessed by the saman, drank it, and went crazy and ran away into the wilderness, or turned purple and black and died.  
The oldest brother went to her and begged her to stop, but the wicked ycher-asi only laughed at him, and took dead villagers’ hearts and blood, and bomb’s ashes, and bandersnatch’s fangs, and snow from the mountain peak, and mixed it all in the pot, and read another spell over it, and a great blizzard came out of the pot and froze everything around. The spell was so strong that even the ycher-asi herself was frozen, and her skin turned white and blue, and instead of a human child she gave birth to the Snow monsters, and turned into an ice crystal afterwards.  
The oldest brother went back to the village, but was lost in the snowstorm and would die, if he would not remember about the wolf. He howled, asking the wolf for help. The beast came and said, “How can I help you, strong man?”  
"Lead me through the snowstorm to my village," The oldest brother said.  
When he returned to the village, he saw that all yurts were broken by the strong wind.  
"What have you done," His brothers said. "Your ycher-asi of a wife destroyed our village."  
They took all their things and all reindeer and went south, through the frozen sea, and settled on the other side. The oldest brother wanted to take a wife, but no woman wanted him. “Go to your ycher-asi,” They told him, “Live with her in the snow.”  
And so he lived alone and died alone too.

_(From “The tales of North”, Evan Marius, 1932)_


End file.
